Originally exposed in American movie theaters as
The Seducers with an early X rating, Top
Sensationthe 1969 sexy potboiler Top Sensation
was dismissed at the time among a slew of erotic
thrillers but became something of a holy grail
for collectors based on one irresistible selling
point: it''s the sole cinematic teaming of
Italian sex sirens Edwige Fenech and Rosalba
Neri, both steaming up the screen thanks to
plenty of kinky plot twists and opportunities
for exposed skin. About to take the crown as
queen of the giallo in a string of films by
Sergio Martino, the gorgeous Fenech was still a
newcomer at the time, while Neri (future star of
Lady Frankenstein and The Devil''s Wedding Night)
had already racked up a string of credits and
even made a trio of Jess Franco films back to
back with this one.

Here the twisted mayhem takes a decidedly
nautical turn when concerned mother Mudy (author
Belleroche in her lone movie appearance) decides
to help her simpleton son Tony (Miti) become a
man. While most movies would be content to
exploit that idea by having mom hire a hooker,
this one goes off the deep end right away as
Mudy sticks her boy on a yacht along with a
perverse married couple, Aldo (The Perfume of
the Lady in Black''s Bonuglia) and Paula (Neri),
and their prostitute plaything, Ulla (Fenech),
who has no problem taking time out during shore
leave to pose for kinky nudie photos with the
local livestock. Double crosses and
complications pile up as the characters hop in
and out of each other''s beds, setting the stage
for a grimly ironic finale.

Taking an obvious cue from Roman Polanski''s
ship-bound Knife in the Water but adding
plentiful sleaze, Top Sensation usually gets
treated like a giallo in reference books but
doesn''t really look or feel like one at all.
Instead it Top Sensationoccupies that strange
twilight realm between erotica and art film,
featuring characters whose warped psychologies
become evident in the way they use each other''s
bodies. Seen now it''s also an obvious precursor
to several later Italian films, most obviously
Ruggero Deodato''s Waves of Lust, but there''s no
way anyone could top the casting here. Plus it
has Edwige doing that photo spread with a goat,
which has to be seen to be believed, and
composer Sante Maria Romitelli (Hatchet for the
Honeymoon) chips in with a fantastic score
featuring a very catchy main theme and several
groovy pieces of party music. Top SensationThis
was also the second and final directorial effort
for screenwriter Ottavio Alessi, who adopts a
conservative point and shoot aesthetic here that
suits the material well enough but doesn''t even
try to compete with some of the stylish
cinematic maestros of the period. After this he
went back to strictly writing, turning out a
string of ''70s credits including the exotic
curio Bali, the dual exploitation feat of The
Black Decameron, and the excellent, wildly
underrated 1978 occult horror film Damned in
Venice, which is still screaming out for a
decent special edition.

Mostly seen in shoddy dupes taken from rare VHS
copies, Top Sensation exists in a multitude of
versions indicating the powers that be were
trying to aim it at the largest number of
markets possible. The state of film censorship
was very odd at the time with the recently
minted MPAA finding its footing and countries
like Italy and the UK trying to figure out how
far audiences would be willing to go. (As it
turned out in the following decade, the answer
was a lot further than anyone could have
predicted.) The version known as The Seducers
features a particularly sloppy English dub but
contains some racier shots of the leading
ladies, mainly shots of their derrieres which
were shot in alternate covered versions for the
Italian market. In Germany, a shorter and
drastically different version was released
containing newly shot scenes with a couple of
completely new characters added to the mix
(shades of Kiss of the Vampire), including some
graphic frontal nudity that''s far more extreme
than anything in the original feature. The US
version popped up briefly on VHS from Something
Weird, but on the whole this film was
maddeningly hard to find for three decades. Top
Sensation

Continuing its quest to salvage outrageous
European cinema curios for a new audience,
Camera Obscura presents one of its most lavish
Region 2 editions to date with their Top
Sensation release, which is spread out to two
DVDs this time and represents an astonishing
labor of love for a film most thought had been
forgotten. The version found on disc one is the
standard Italian release version with loads of
topless nudity, transferred from the original
negative. A disclaimer indicates this isn''t up
to the label''s normal standards, and if one had
to guess, this is probably the transfer provided
as is based on the fact that it''s softer than
usual and appears to have undergone some digital
scrubbing, including some grungy video noise
that looks all too familiar from some past
Italian-sourced releases. That said, it''s
amazing to have a commercial DVD of this title
at all, and the presentation easily blows away
any version we''ve had so far by a tremendous
margin. (And yes, the 1.33:1 framing is
correct.) Audio is presented in English,
Italian, or German with optional subs in English
or German. On the English track, some footage
never dubbed over is presented in German or
Italian with subs. As usual, there''s also a
good-natured audio commentary by Christian
Kessler and Marcus Stiglegger, both of whom get
a big kick out of the film and explore its
strange release history with a particular focus
on the bizarre German variant, with plenty of
asides about the actors and some possible
critical readings of the film''s social
attitudes. The alternate opening titles and
spicier shots from the U.S. version (around 10
minutes'' worth) are included as a separate reel
sourced from VHS, along with a separate sampler
from the German version. There''s also a
different edit of the ending aired on Italian
TV, included here with a broadcast bug in the
corner. A photo gallery is included as well
along with a half-hour featurette, "Boats and
Goats," with actors Neri and Salvatore Puntillo
(who plays a pivotal role in the third act)
recalling working with Alessi, the transitional
state of European filmmaking at the time, media
censorship, and the sunny shooting locations
including the challenges of filming the majority
of a film on a boat. Disc two contains the
German version in its entirety (sourced from the
only master available, a VHS), with optional
English subtitles, as well as a 20-minute video
interview with producer Gunter Hendel, who talks
about how that particular cut came into
existence and the ins and outs of his career
behind and in front of the camera. Especially
interesting is another bonus, a video
presentation of the original fotoromanzo (or
photo novel) with optional English subtitles; it
runs 39 minutes and offers yet another variation
of the film thanks to some alternate photos for
some scenes, and in a nifty bonus, it''s all
accompanied by the film''s terrific soundtrack in
stereo (presumably sourced from the very rare
soundtrack LP with some tracks repeated).
Finally the attractively packaged set closes out
with a liner notes booklet in English and German
by Kai Naumann, who takes the unexpected
approach of tackling this film as an apocalyptic
character study of the last surviving people on
earth. An essential release for any discerning
Eurocult enthusiast.